LOOKING GOOD

Not winning this one, unfortunately, but still looking good -- even if occasionally looking at strikes.

The Red Inks lost 14-5 to the five-time defending champion Franklin Institute on the breezy plateau of Dairy 2. We didn't make enough plays in the field or string together enough timely hits to prevent the outcome. Oh, well.

It was death by a thousand paper cuts as Franklin held a tenuous 9-5 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth. The Orcs didn't bring more than seven batters to the plate in any of the previous innings or score more than three runs in any of them. But they methodically got their two runs, then took the field to catch everything, which might be part of their secret. They scored five in the bottom of the sixth to wrap things up for sure. Again. Oh, well.

It was a good effort by us, and there were two major highlights to the game. The first was when Orc Captains Ryan Whitmarsh and Nick Ventrola popped out to the infield in succession on infield fly rules. Otherwise, the sixth would have been a lot messier.

The second came when Brian Donlen -- for all the youngsters who might have been tuning in -- demonstrated perfectly the old baseball adage that a batter should not swing at a pitch if it's not his. Now, it's true that Brian neglected to take the "two-strike" exception into account, but it was some solid fundamentals out there.

We managed just 14 hits for the game, not nearly enough, and didn't score after a four-run outburst in the third. Steve Lynch, Mark Nevins, Dan "I'm Back" Rubin, Jon Snyder and the Management had two hits each, which means everyone else went 4-for-20, and you know who you are.

Well, what of it. If we beat the Art Museum on Tuesday, we move back into first place. And that would definitely look good.